Australian Stock Charts

As its name implies, the Australian Stock Exchange, or ASX, is the chief stock exchange in Australia. The ASX is a public company and is listed on its own Exchange. Every stock listed with the ASX is assigned a three letter code.

Other types of exchanges exist in the country but overall they are pretty much identical to the Australian Exchange. As far back as 1871, the Australian Stock Exchange began as individual exchanges in different states.

Nowadays, trading on the Australian Stock Exchange is all done electronically, which is a complete change from the "olden days" where it was all done manually and by humans, not computers. The computer system that handles these exchanges nowadays in Australia is called SEATS.

In Australia there are four key indexes which are quoted most frequently. These include the ASX 200 (which lists the top 200 stocks at that time), the ASX 100, which lists the top 100 stocks, the All Ordinaries, and the ASX 50, which lists the top 50 stocks. The most commonly used indexes which make the news the most often in Australia and are talked about the most are the All Ordinaries and the ASX 200. Investors keep tabs on these two indexes, using them as bench marks of sorts and to get an idea of how the market is doing overall.

Overall, mining stocks make up a very large amount of the index in Australia, especially because of the recent surge in mining resources. For example, some of the biggest stocks that are traded that are part of the index include Tinto, Rio, National Australia Bank, BHP Billiton, and Telstra.

Right now, the typical average daily turnover for the ASX is close to $4 billion. Approximately 122,000 trades made every day. Although there are a lot of rules that have to do with listing on the ASX, it can be a wonderful way for businesses to grow and add some money into their treasuries.